Elva Mk 1 & 2

[Rupertlt1]

Originally Posted by ElvaMKII

Hugh McPhail was a lumber yard owner who was a WWII pilot and who built airplanes after the War. He started building Kurtis race cars in 1953 and was making his own aluminum bodies. In 1957 he put a Chevy V8 into an AC ACE. (He should have marketed that idea!). In 1958 be bought Elva MK II 100/27 from Chuck Dietrich. That was the car Dietrch had imported and raced in 1957 but then crashed it at Marlboro. The car was sent back to Elva and repairs made by November. The Elva was returned to Dietrich, who sold it to McPhail in May or so of '58. McPhail raced it at Harewood, Dunkirk and Green Acres. He evidently once loaned the car to Donald Peters, a popular and one-armed fellow, to race at Watkins Glen in 1958. Bob Deull recalls the car then went to Dennis Brown of East Aurora, who raced it at the Glen in 1964. The car by then had had some body work done, probably by McPhail who could do aluminum work, that included a removable cowl, smooth rear deck to replace the spare tire hump, and a Kamm style rear end. In the late 1970's Charles Schwab of Short Hills bought the car. It was sitting in a field at the end of a steep dirt road (he told me) and he planned to restore it. He did not and in 1980 he sold it to John Lindsey of Toronto. The car then went to Frank(?) Miller and in 1990 to Bob Grunau, who restored and raced it. In 2006 Bob sold the car to me. It sits in my garage. We're taking it to the Elva 60th a Reunion next Septembe.r ��

Hubert McPhail had an accident in the Elva Mk II at Harewood Acres, Ontario,
Sports Car Cub of Toronto meeting, 16 August 1958.
Competition Press, 31 August 1958:
The first lap of this race
erased more cars from the
entry list than any race of
the day. From a grid start, the
cars charged the first right
90° turn six and seven abreast.
Dietrich, Coad, Bradley and a
few other proficient drivers
eased their way through the
mass of Saturday afternoon
traffic, fortunate they were
for when the dust settled a
mass of twisted body work
lay midway between the Esses,
McPhail's MkII Elva, three
Canada Class cars and a
Porsche Spyder.
All the drivers escaped
injury except for the visible
damage to their machines
which clearly empasized
the incident. No driver was
too sure as to what started
the pack up, except that
someone lost it in the first
corner and a chain reaction
followed as the cars found
one another's body work.
[McPhail was #171GM]
Autosport:
Race 4 brought out the really inter-
esting sports-racing machinery and in-
cluded several Canada Class hybrids, two
Lotuses (Loti?), two Porsche Spyders, a
brace of Elvas, Autsin Healeys ????
There was nothing Sunday afternoon ??
about the way the whole howling pack
charged into the first bend. Someone
was a might too enthusiastic and there
was a monumental "kerfuffle." F???'s
Porsche Spyder got rammed fore and
aft. McPhail's Elva and several others
were "kaput" but nobody was hurt.

RGDS RLT

[Haig Writer]

Hi,

I am writing a book about the race and rally driver Betty Haig. I have a question about an Elva Mk1 100/5 (Registration UPX 475) that Betty bought and taxed 8 Mar 1956 Engine Number FWA 400/3 Climax 1097cc engine Sold 19 May 1956 to Roy and Jean Bloxam she described the car as “Distinctly Lethal” which is why she only kept it for a short period. What was the problem with early Elvas and what does an early one look like? Where can I find a decent picture of an early Climax Elva please?

Thanks

Roger

[PeterMorley]

Originally Posted by Haig Writer

Hi,

I am writing a book about the race and rally driver Betty Haig. I have a question about an Elva Mk1 100/5 (Registration UPX 475) that Betty bought and taxed 8 Mar 1956 Engine Number FWA 400/3 Climax 1097cc engine Sold 19 May 1956 to Roy and Jean Bloxam she described the car as “Distinctly Lethal” which is why she only kept it for a short period. What was the problem with early Elvas and what does an early one look like? Where can I find a decent picture of an early Climax Elva please?

Thanks

Roger

If you look on the Elva website (Elva.com) under history then Elva book there are some pictures.
However, given that Elva only really supplied a chassis the early cars had all sorts of different bodies.
According to the list I have, "UPX475 had an alloy body, similar to Maseratis A6GCS (Ashley Laminates might have used this body as a mould for fiberglass bodies?)".

This is apparently a photo of Betty in an Elva mark 1
https://revslib.stanford.edu/catalog/ys065nq0455
But that car has a Falcon body, which was one of the most popular - it doesn't match the description I have of UPX.

Janos Wimpffen's huge Elva book has a lot of information but very little on Betty Haig, apart from saying at one race she was due to drive the ugly slab sided alloy bodied works car and later on that she raced Elva's quite a lot.

Someone who recently had several early Elvas reported that the handling was unpredictable - according to the Motorsport article on Betty in January 1965 it was "remembered as "a trifle lethal." It had a non-independent rear end, so that "lift off and you flew off."

Given the front suspension was the complete subframe/suspension assembly from a Standard 8/10 I suspect it was more a mismatch between the front and rear end - possibly a result of not changing the front springs to reflect the greatly reduced weight on it.

Peter

[ElvaMKII]

Originally Posted by ElvaMKII

This is a MK II (B?) owned and just sold by Tom Jones to Chris Patterson, son of Alan. Chassis 100/49 makes it a late MK II must was raced in California in ca. 1959 by Dan-San Abbott and then went to Jack (?) Hinshaw in early '60's. Found and marked period photos of the car at Revslib.stanford.edu.

HCORRECTION: The Elva MK II was sold to Chip Fudge.

[giuliamdda]

Bonjour
Nous avons acheté l'ELVA MK II Barquette Sport Bobtail 100/40 en Novembre 2014.
Rien n'a été modifié, elle est toujours en alu, elle va bien !!!
Nous l'avons toujours. Elle est dans le Gard en France. Elle est conduite par François Brun.
Elle participait ?* des courses de côtes, ballades sur les routes de Provence, journées de roulage, expositions dans des salons prestigieux (https://www.flickr.com/photos/tautaudu02/42529201724).
Si vous en savez plus sur cette auto, je suis preneuse !